Urban Hawks

June 2, 2007December 22, 2020Other Red-tailed Hawks

Briarwood, Queens

I visited the Briarwood, Queens nest today. It still had one eyass on the nest and a fledgling exploring nearby. The mother was visible, but I didn’t see the father. This was my first visit to the location.

These two bring my count for Red-tailed Hawk youngsters to 19 for the season. Wow! Red-tails are doing wonderfully this season. Briarwood also marks my first fledgling sighting of the season.

For more about these hawks and their history, visit Jeffrey Kollbrunner’s Nature Gallery.

The Audubon web camera is on the left and the nest on the right.

I didn’t expect to be able to find the fledgling, but out of the blue, it appeared within twenty feet of the nest.

I had expected to have a hard time. The area surrounding the nest includes a few highways. Usually, if all else fails, you can hear a fledgling beg for food. In this location however, hearing the fledgling will be difficult because of all the traffic noise.

The fledgling in a tree. It jumped/flapped awkwardly from branch to branch. It still has lot of learning to do.

I lost the fledgling for about fifteen minutes and then rediscovered it by accident.

It did something very frightening. It explored the razor wire.

I was so worried, but did my best to stay still and calm. I didn’t want to startle it and cause it to injure itself.

It looked caught for a few long seconds, but did a good job maneuvering.

I just hope once was enough. I don’t want to watch this again.

Luckily, it soon moved to a much safer place.

If there was a caption writing contest, I’m sure the winner would be “Mom, why aren’t we on the dollar bill?”

May 31, 2007December 25, 2020Other Animals

Baby Raccoons

While looking for owls on Thursday, I found these three baby raccoons. Their tree had been trimmed after a branch had fallen. There mother was inspecting the changes and these three went exploring around their cavity.

May 31, 2007December 22, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Brown Heads At The Cathedral

The eyasses continue to grow up at the Cathedral. Two of the eyasses have brown feathers on their heads now. They’re still a ways from fledging, but they’re growing up fast.

The mother on the Archangel’s wing, rather than the trumpet.

There fuzzy gray down is almost all gone.

They’ve begun to use the Morningside edge of the nest, which means one must walk half a block to photograph each angle. I guess as they get more active, we’ll have to be more active too.

The father on the left, and the mother on the right.

May 31, 2007December 22, 2020Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

Riverside Church Peregrine Falcons 2007

I visited Riverside Church after work to see how their pair of Peregrine Falcons were doing. Both were visible, one perched on the northwest corner, and one flying around the church tower when I arrived. I hope this is a sign that their eggs have hatched, but we won’t know for a few weeks.

Update: Robert Schmunk saw two nestlings peaking out from the Falcon’s scrape on Sunday, June 3rd. So, we’ll have fledglings within a few weeks.

May 31, 2007December 15, 2020Owls

Thursday, May 31st

I went up to the Pool this evening and was unable to find a single owl. The tree leaves are just too dense to have any hope of finding them.

This season was very satisfying. The parents and the fledgling were a wonderful group to observe and I learned a great deal about Eastern Screech-Owl behavior.

Until next year, back to hawks for the rest of spring…

May 30, 2007December 22, 2020Other Red-tailed Hawks

Fordham University, Bronx, New York

The Fordham University Rose Hill campus has a nest on Collins Auditorium. This is the nest location’s second year. Both years have been successful with three eyasses last year, and three this year.

Chris Lyons and Dr. Rich Fleisher both work at Fordham and send regular reports via Rob Jett’s City Birder Blog and Dr. Richard Fleisher’s page at Fordham.

The parents have been nicknamed Hawkeye and Rose. Alan Alda is an alumnus of Fordham, so Hawkeye is named after Alan Alda’s character on the television program M.A.S.H. Rose, the female is named after the campus.

The campus is a traditional College setting with lawns, gardens and footpaths. The campus is adjacent to Bronx Park, a 718 acre park home to the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Gardens.